Tempelhoff, Johann2016-02-252016-02-252015Tempelhoff, J. 2015. The ‘long now’ of southern African water: exploring aspects of enchantment and disenchantment in Brandfort. TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 11(2):104-121, Nov. [http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/3605]1817-4434http://hdl.handle.net/10394/16432http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/3605Strategies aimed at understanding contemporary South African water supply and sanitation problems require a broad view of factors such as migration, urbanisation and climate change. Working from a case study of the water supply of the town of Brandfort in the Free State Province of South Africa, attention is given to its contemporary water crisis; the origins of the town in the nineteenth century; a view of the deep time of the region; and suggestions for gaining understanding of the town's contemporary social ecological history in terms of the dynamics of its local water supplies.enBrandfortErfenis DamMunicipal service deliveryWater and sanitationLong-term thinkingSocial ecological systemsPanarchyArticle